Justice League: Heroes Past
by JenaCarlson
Summary: Dylan Runnalls, leader of a rebellion against a murderous regime, plans to take down a secured city that holds the world's last opportunity for salvation against earth's new dictator, Darkseid. Runnalls and his fellow patriots have to recruit and free the city's inhabitants before the Anti-Life Equation is used against the last of mankind.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Beyond the Veil

Dylan stood on a grassy outcropping and stared out over the valley that encased Veil City. The grass surrounding the perfect model homes radiated with the purest green, as if little emeralds were sprinkled over the landscape. Trees stood proud and tall while they basked in the bright sunlight. Flowers bloomed with cascades of radiance as they adorned every yard and business front. Smiles and laughter were found on every corner, alleyway, and street. But it was all a lie. A lie orchestrated from a society driven by fear and the inability to control something bigger…and Dylan was determined to bring it all down.

The need to obliterate Veil City was Dylan's focus for the past two decades. It consumed every part of his life and the lives of those willing to help him. Veil City sat as a kingdom in an oasis, but its inhabitants lived in ordinary importance. Its presence defined the turmoil on his side of its walls. Veil City was everything wrong with the world.

The Alpha War decimated the earth 20 years ago. It left the world in ruin: major cities destroyed, hundreds of thousands slain, and now chaos with a dark name ruled the lands. During the time of recuperation, a tyrant snuck in right under the human race's nose and took control with little resistance.

Veil City was a direct consequence of the Alpha War, a prison for the guilty parties, but mostly on a volunteer scale. Its residents were the bad guys… and the good guys. They had volunteered to relinquish their power as punishment for the mass destruction they caused. Their memories were wiped, new identities planted, and they were nestled into the valley under the sun.

A force field was placed around the city to prevent anyone from leaving or getting in. The inhabitants led lives as government leaders, butchers, florists, street vendors, and office workers. Any knowledge of the outside world and their past was a lost memory.

Dylan Runnalls was 13 during The Alpha War, and it still felt like a fresh memory when he thought of the moment when the sky turned crimson. The smell of scorched earth and flesh encompassed the world on that day. Buildings flattened, dead piled on top of dead, creatures roaming the streets, and firefights in the atmosphere above. Explosions, lasers, cries of the injured echoed throughout the night. In one single day, the earth was ruined.

Dylan lost his entire family that day except for his younger brother, Jake. Their neighbor, Richard Cashman, took them in after the war and raised them until Dylan was 19. A 72-year-old widower, with no children of his own, had plenty of room to raise two orphans. As a former Marine, he had a lot to offer a teenage Dylan. Richard taught him to take care of himself and his home. Jake took no interest in the militant lifestyle and stuck to books. No matter how much Dylan pushed Jake to learn it all, Jake delved further into studies and fantasy worlds.

Two weeks before Dylan's nineteenth birthday, he found Richard in the garden, dead from a heart attack.

"He left us, just like Mom and Dad. He left us," Jake sobbed.

Dylan had not been able to grieve for his parents and was faced with another caretaker's death on top of raising a 12-year-old boy…all by himself. Despite losing his parents at Jake's age, he was still able to grasp it without dealing with it, but he and Jake were two different people.

By 33, Dylan had done the best he could do. Jake went off to rebuild the world, and Dylan was had to save it. Over the past five years, he recruited a team of misfit individuals set on a rebellion against the new world regime. Rebel armies stationed all over the world always fell short of their objective to reclaim the earth, but the world's new dictator was always a step ahead of them. Rebel factions were obliterated or captured, having their memories wiped and free will taken for perfect placement in the world's new army.

Veil City stood as the last resort for earth's salvation. Its destruction would bring about a resolution... or it would backfire in Dylan's face. Pure luck was all he had left once he was able to disable the force field. He stepped back from the ledge and sighed.

"Are you ready?" he asked his technology expert, Jim.

Jim Spencer, a tall, lanky man in his forties, was an ex-CIA agent before the war. He told Dylan to never ask what he did, because he may find out things that he did not want to know. Dylan left it at that but let Jim work his magic to gather technology to break Veil City's electronic spell.

"I'm as ready as ready can get, Dylan. We keep putting this off, and we'll never get in," Jim said.

Dylan nodded in agreement and turned around to face the group of onlookers waiting for his command.

"Guys, this is it. There will probably never be a moment better than this one." He motioned to a woman standing next to him. "Emma?"

A statuesque redhead in her late twenties stepped forward.

"Ok everyone, you know your positions. We won't have much time, but if the military shows up, you have to keep them off of our backs and not tip them off to what we're doing. As Dylan said, this may be the only opportunity we get."

Emma Conrad turned back to Dylan and gave him a wan smile. He, too, felt her unease. The lives of his crew were in his hands. A knot in his stomach pulsed. He had not succumbed to nerves before, and he wasn't about to start. He placed his hand on Emma's shoulder and feigned a smile.

"We got this, Emma. The world can't afford for us to lose this chance. Make sure you stick by me at all times and don't forget the plan if we get separated."

"I know, I know. Meet at the cemetery. I got it, Dylan," she said.

She was so beautiful in that moment that he longed to kiss her. His feelings for her had blossomed into something he thought might be love. The past two years had been new territory for Dylan, because he had made a promise long time ago after Richard's death to never get close to anyone. Death followed him like a shadow, and he did not want another loved one to suffer the darkness that surrounded him. Even Jake was a stranger now.

"Let's go," he said.

He led her to the edge of the cliff, and she strapped into her repelling gear. Before getting into his, he sauntered over to Jim. Beeps and clicks chirped as Jim rifled through programs on his transmitting modulator.

"We're headed down now, Jim. Let's get going," Dylan said.

"Yeah, ok. Just testing some last minute scenarios, so I can prepare for the worst."

"You don't know how much better that makes me feel," Dylan chucked.

Jim looked up at him from his sitting position on the ground and appeared confused about what was so funny. His left eyebrow arched.

Dylan lightly smacked him on the back, "Never mind, man. Just make sure it works."

He helped Jim up and wondered if this was the last time he would see his friend. The cliff stood two hundred feet above the bottom of the valley, the only spot out of view of surveillance. They spent months traversing the area around Veil City looking for weak spots in the security and came across this lucky gem.

Dylan strapped himself in and saluted to the onlookers as he swung off the ledge. Every 15 feet, his feet sprang off the face of the cliff, and the sound of the rope buzzed through his hands. He descended faster than he wanted, but the impending mission had his adrenaline pumping. Emma followed suit alongside him, but she struggled to keep up. When his feet hit the ground, he looked up and signaled for Jim to head down.

"Ok, when Jim gets this thing open, we're going to head straight for the house at the end of the block. Harley and her husband are at work for the next two hours. We will set up a communications station in the shed out back. Once we are finished there, we head out to the pharmacy to make contact with Diana. Remember, stay with me, Emma. No matter what happens. Veil City isn't a place for us. We're completely outmatched here."

Emma stared back at him, unmoving in her expression.

"Dylan, we've been over this a million times. I promise you, I got it. Once we've made contact with Diana, we head for the grocery store to stock up on supplies. There's no telling how long we're going to be here. Once we're done there, we head over to the hotel to set up base camp."

Dylan nodded and gleaned a sliver of hope from Emma's reassurances.

"Ok, ok. I just wanted to be sure. We don't have a lot of room for error. Even while we're in there, we'll still be winging it. There's no telling what these guys are going to say or do. They may laugh us off, or they may lock us up. We're strangers here. A small city like this engineers quick gossip. Stealth and speed are our only allies here, Emma."

She reached up and placed her hand on his cheek, "Dylan, stop worrying. This isn't like you. I promise. Stealth and speed."

She had never touched him like that before, and he resisted the urge to recoil. Genuine human contact had been a foreign concept in the many years since his mother's passing. He'd had girlfriends…more like flings or one night stands, but he'd never let a woman get close to him on an emotional level since the world fell apart.

"Do you have your extra set of clothes packed? We don't want to look out of place on first contact."

She unzipped her backpack and flung a t-shirt at him.

"Ok, all right. I believe you now," he chuckled. The chuckle appeared alien to him. He cleared his throat to shake the tension from his voice.

A thud echoed off the rock face as Jim touched the ground. Dylan and Emma quickly helped him get out of his gear so they wouldn't be seen before they could open the portal. Jim kneeled and placed the transmitter at his feet. After he pushed a few buttons, heard a few beeps, and ran a few programs, he gave a thumbs-up to signal that it was almost ready.

"Ok, Dylan. This thing will be ready in three minutes. You and Emma need to be ready to jump through. I'm going to warn you, though. This opening won't stay open long. Get through it as fast as possible," Jim said.

Before Dylan could interject, Jim added, "One more thing. I can't promise you that I'll be able to reopen it either. You never know what's going to happen. Your only help may have to come from them," Jim pointed to downtown Veil City. "Just be back here tomorrow. That's all we have…one day."

Dylan knew the consequences of what would happen if they did not succeed. They would be stuck in Veil City unless they could start an all-out revolt, but he was afraid to face the ramifications of awakening the savages. A fight between two caged dogs never resulted in a good ending. Dylan wanted no more bloody carnage. He had seen enough of that for many lifetimes.

He patted Jim on the shoulder and walked over to the edge of the field next to Emma. She looked at him, and the expression of worry danced around in her eyes. He was worried, too, but he was not going to give up.

"Ok, guys. Ready in 3…2…1…go," Jim exclaimed.

In unison, Emma and Dylan stepped forward past the barrier and onto forbidden soil. They were inside Veil City. He turned back to get a glimpse of Jim and waved at him. Jim threw a saluted wave back, and they ran toward their first checkpoint.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Behind Enemy Lines

When they reached the shed, Emma popped the lock off with bolt cutters, and they slipped inside unnoticed. She cleared off a work table in an inconspicuous corner and unpacked her backpack. Out from the backpack, she pulled out a communications receiver-transmitter Jim made that could get past the waves of the force field. She pressed some buttons, ran through a few configurations, and she was done.

Jim's voice came over the receiver, "Hey over there. You guys getting this yet?"

"Loud and clear, Jimmy," she exclaimed back into the microphone.

"Radio silence for twelve hours. We'll meet back here at 0300," Jim responded.

"Ten-four. Out." She switch it off. "Well, that works. Check that off of our list."

She carefully piled items around the makeshift radio to disguise it in case Harley or her husband came out to the shed. They hoped the missing lock wouldn't be noticed.

"Ok, let's get dressed and head out to the pharmacy. Do you have the rope?"

She pulled the rope out of her bag, and it sparkled with golden magnificence. Dylan acquired it seven years after the guardians surrendered themselves over for incarceration. There wasn't a single flaw in it, and it took everything Dylan had not to get lost in its radiance.

"We have to be extra careful with this, Dylan. We cannot let this get into the wrongs hands, especially Diana's _before_ we talk to her."

He nodded in agreement and stuffed it into his messenger bag. They wanted to look like they fit in, so they dressed in brightly colored clothes made for a utopian world, vastly different from their tattered military fatigues. Dylan chuffed.

"What's so funny?" Emma asked with a hint of annoyance behind her voice.

"Never thought I'd be doing the same thing... for the same reason they did… to hide in plain sight."

Emma pulled a yellow t-shirt over her head and rearranged her tousled hair. Dylan opted for a button-up flannel shirt and baseball cap. The hat was the only thing he'd kept from his childhood. A gold crown sat atop the peak of an embroidered yellow "M." Memories of watching the Monarchs play rushed through his head. The smell of hotdogs and nachos enveloped his senses. A Monarchs baseball game was the last thing he and his father did before the war. The stadium now lie beneath levels of rock, dirt, and memories.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

She made sure every piece of clothing was in place and nodded. He had never seen her in this type of style. Most of the time, they ran around in black fatigues. Had they not been right in the middle of an important mission, he would've pulled her close and embraced her, maybe even kissed her. She was a lovely sight. Something worth fighting for.

They slipped out of the shed and walked toward Veil City's downtown district. As they reached the city line, they were greeted by a perky hot dog vendor. He yelled out his prices, why one should buy them, and why they'd be back for more. Dylan's stomach grumbled. He hadn't eaten anything that day, and the reminiscing about baseball games had awakened his hunger.

"Let's stop and get a dog. I'm freaking starving," Dylan pleaded. "I only need one to get me by. Do you want anything?"

Emma shook her head and glanced down at her watch, "Make it quick, Dylan. We don't want to miss her."

The hot dog vendor beckoned him over. As Dylan approached, the sweet smell of chili hit him in the face, then the onions, and the dogs themselves smelled like something out of this world.

"I'll take one all the way," Dylan said.

The vendor grinned and put the dog together.

"That'll be two-fifty," he said and stuck out his hand to receive money.

Absentmindedly, Dylan pulled out his wallet and offered the man three dollars. The vendor chuckled, "Boy, where in the world did you get those? We haven't used tinder like that in decades. Don't you have any Veilions?"

Dylan froze. He'd forgotten their money was different. He laughed uncomfortably and stowed wallet. Feverishly, he searched his pockets as he tried to give the appearance his stash of Veilions was just moments away.

"Look, kid. You look hungry…and broke. This one's on the house. I'd hate to embarrass you in front of your girl," he nodded in Emma's direction.

Feeling grateful, Dylan accepted the hot dog. When he took it from the vendor's hand, he got a better look at the guy and almost dropped the dog on the ground. He quickly recovered but managed to get some chili on his hands.

"You ok, boy?" the vendor asked.

"Yeah, uh, fine. Sorry. Thank you so much for the hot dog," Dylan tipped his hat, grabbed some napkins and shuffled up to Emma.

She noticed the look of horror on his face, "What's wrong?"

"The hot dog guy… it was… Lex Luthor," Dylan sputtered. He shoved the hot dog into his mouth and chewed with unabated hunger.

Emma's eyes widened. She glanced over Dylan's shoulder to get a better look at the vendor.

"You're right. Oh my god, Dylan. You might want to rethink eating that hot dog. It's probably poisoned."

For a brief moment, Dylan considered it. But all he could see was the smile on Luthor's face. It seemed genuine. No malice. His brain had a hard time accepting that a mass murderer and conniving libertine would have a kind heart. Not all aspects of Veil City were bad as far as hosting the harshest of criminals. It was unfortunate that when they finally got the force field down, they, too, would be released. He hoped the savagery would stay locked away, and the evil doers wouldn't remember their roots.

They watched people interact with each other in fruit markets, at newsstands, and in coffee shops. They were genuinely nice to each other. They didn't blast each other away with laser weapons or magic tricks. They shook hands, hugged, laughed, and smiled at each other.

As if reading his mind, Emma spoke, "Wow, this is bizarre, Dylan. They're being…nice. No fighting, no threats of destruction or taking over the world. I don't get it."

Veil City was cut off from the rest of the world. They were kept in a deep valley, hidden from any wandering eye. The government chose to incarcerate them instead of executing them for their war crimes. In a distant memory, Dylan recalled the day he saw them surrender on television. The regret in their voices and the deep sense of loss on their faces would always haunt Dylan. Each hero quietly turned themselves over in restraints and was whisked away…never to be seen by the public eye again.

The tyrant that ruled the current world, an alien from another planet, took his opportunity of world domination while the world slept. He and his army stormed the capitals of every country and took over in a blink. He was without mercy, executing every high official to set an example for anyone willing to stand up against him. Resistance camps, more-so prisons, were set up on the outskirts of every city to house rebellious citizens as they made their way through the mind-wiping process. He was able to control the thoughts and actions of anybody he was able to capture. Most humans were robots now.

As they approached the pharmacy, Dylan took Emma off to the side to go over their plans one last time.

"We need to find her and get her off to the side out of sight. If you find her first, try to find an item on a shelf out of reach so she'll have to get it. Then we'll carefully slip the rope around her. Got it?"

Emma nodded, and they split up. Dylan wandered down each aisle looking for Diana. She would be easy to spot but cornering her would be the hard part. Men and women strolled around the store, picking out last-minute items before their journey home.

As he glanced down the last aisle, he saw her. It felt surreal seeing her in this element. Diana stood taller than he would've imagined. Her long black hair glistened under the fluorescent lights, and her figure seemed so foreign in civilian clothes. As Dylan creeped closer to her, he went over in his mind any scenario that could present itself. Of all situations they would face over the next day, this one could not be screwed up. She seemed lost in her thoughts as she stocked the shelves.

"Um, excuse me, Miss. Can you help me with something?"

Bright blue eyes pierced right through him, and he almost shuttered from her brilliance. She was every bit of beautiful in person. Dylan found it odd that she hadn't aged or developed one wrinkle in the two decades she'd been under the veil.

"Absolutely. What can I do for you?" she smiled.

Dylan was frozen in awe. He'd completely forgotten what to say. Diana's beauty was rapturing and terrifying at the same time. With a 6'3" frame in low heels, she towered over him. He knew she could snap his neck with two fingers if she desired.

"Sir?" she asked again, smiling.

"Um, sorry. Yes, I can't reach that item over there," Dylan pointed to a high standing shelf one aisle over. "Can you reach it for me?"

She grinned with eagerness and walked over to the place in question. As he followed her, he covertly took the rope out of his bag. Emma rounded the corner at the same time and followed behind him. As Diana arched her feet, reaching to the top of the shelf, Dylan gently placed the rope around Diana's waist and pulled tight. Diana's body stiffened.

Dylan reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture.

"Tell me where this man is."

Diana's eyes scanned the picture, and with a robotic voice, she replied, "He is the town drunk. You can probably find him standing outside the liquor store."

He hated doing this to her. The sense of violation made his stomach churn. She didn't deserve this, but it would be over soon.

"I'm sorry about this, Diana. We'll come back for you. I promise." He loosened the rope, and it dangled in his hand.

Diana looked dazed. She put her hand to her forehead and tried to focus.

"Where am I?" she asked.

Confused, Dylan looked at Emma. Equally confused, Emma shrugged her shoulders.

"Why do you have my lasso?" Diana belted, "Who are you?"

The Amazon's mind had returned, and Dylan had no clue how this had happened. He looked down at the rope in his hand and pure clarity came to mind. It was the Lasso of Truth. It had cured her of her lost memory.

"Wonder Woman?" Dylan whispered.

"Yes, and I asked you a question. Why do you have my lasso? And where am I?" she boomed.

Dylan didn't know what to do. He hadn't planned on this. The Lasso of Truth had many abilities, but this one had completely gotten by him.

"Um," Dylan hesitated, "What do you remember last?"

Diana Prince's presence was more intimidating now that she was in her recovered form. He knew she was a just and fair person, but that didn't stop him from being terrified. Diana's fierce blue eyes stared down at him. His blood turned to ice.

"I remember the war. I remember surrendering myself over to the authorities…but that's it," she said.

"Diana, um, may I call you Diana…or do you prefer Wonder Woman?" Dylan asked.

"Diana is fine. Please answer my questions, or I will have to consider you a hostile threat."

Dylan wanted to take a step backwards, but if he did, he would probably pay for it.

"My name is Dylan. This is Emma. We're here to rescue you... uh... set you free."

"Free me from what?"

"Veil City."


End file.
